ModdedCentipede
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Post by ModdedCentipede on Jun 19, 2022 9:42:29 GMT
This week, we head to Japan for a blend of live action and animation. When a messy apartment gets a new tenant, so begins...
Year: 1987 Starring: Kaoru Kobayashi, Setsuko Karasuma, Kanako Fujiwara Directed by: Hiroaki Yoshida Written by: Hiroaki Yoshida, Steve Kramer, Carl Macek |
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centipede
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It was just one soy latte, I swear!
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Post by centipede on Jun 21, 2022 0:46:58 GMT
This movie is more of a curiosity than anything else, but apparently is well regarded in the otaku circles. The mix of live action and animation is something I've only ever seen from a Yoram Gross (the late "Australian Walt Disney") movie.
Living in the apartment of a depressed, divorced male tenant, the roaches run free. Lady roach gets bored with her decadent life. A handsome refugee crash lands into her's and her fiancee's home and she becomes infatuated with him. He decides to return to his homeland where life is hard. She runs off after him and see their society in a constant battle, against a ruthless female tenant, in what looks like a series of suicide attacks for food. She gets pregnant (implied), accidentally returns to male tenant's apartment and marries her fiancee.
Then the male and female tenants meet and decide to clean house.
The whole time, I was wondering if this was an allegory for something. Then I gave up and decided it was just weird, from the talking turd to the rabbit toy used as a shrine, speaking about humans and the need to evolve. I give it a 2.5 out of 5.
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Jun 25, 2022 19:58:51 GMT
Looks interesting, I may give it a try. I usually like these kind of stories.
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dschult3
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Post by dschult3 on Jun 25, 2022 23:35:33 GMT
What a strange film. It turns into a World War I style of battlefield at the end with the gas warfare and "trenches." I really don't understand the personification of vermin, but I suppose that is a conversation for another time. The mixture of animation amongst the real world in 1987 was well done. Maybe the Sonic movie director took notes on this one? As for this film, it was rather odd. It is a love triangle mixed up with deception with an overarching war against the humans. I really grew to hate Naomi, and the ending annoyed me quite a bit. I too looked for the allegory, centipede, but I really didn't care by the end. I'm guessing the rabbit at the end's speech on how God is unmerciful, and it is up to you to survive may be the overall theme, since the minutia of the love triangle really didn't mean much. That theme could be loosely applied to Saito's relationships, so I guess the personification of the roaches is meant to turn this into a fable. Poor Ichiro. He didn't deserve to be treated the way he did. Naomi is an asshole. |
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centipede
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It was just one soy latte, I swear!
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Post by centipede on Sept 6, 2022 3:43:30 GMT
I was talking to someone about Japan the other day. About how the 80's were the high point. Then I wondered if this movie was an allegory to that.
According to Wikipedia, this was an allegory about Japan's success coming to an end.This was made in 1987. The crash happened in 1991. With Saito was, in fact, the economy. At first he was good to the cockroaches, then he turned on them.
I even remember a scene where one of the female cockroaches wanders into a roach motel and I thought "HOUSING TRAP!". A lot of Japanese people had put their homes up as security to the banks and lenders.
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